


let me feel you in my veins

by sunset_swerved



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, DID I MENTION THIS WAS AN AU?, Drag Queen Julie, Explicit Language, F/M, Friends to Strangers to Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Golden Retriever Reggie, Gratuitous Descriptions because that's one of the only things I'm good at, Long Lost Friends, Long Lost/Secret Relatives, M/M, Nashville, Probably Porn at Some Point TBH, Separated at Birth, Sunset Curve (Julie and The Phantoms), Unplanned Pregnancy, because it is, music references, no beta we die like we ate hot dogs served out of the hood of a car
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-18
Updated: 2020-12-03
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:06:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27613214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunset_swerved/pseuds/sunset_swerved
Summary: Julie and her family moved away when she was sixteen, leaving her best friends and all of the memories of her mom behind. Ten years later, everything comes rushing back when four, familiar hot guys in a band move in next door.“Oh, you’re in a band?” Julie asked. The guy’s vision snapped up from the card he was reading off of and she saw his eyes widen as he looked her up and down and she bit back on the pleased smile that she knew wanted to come up. Her sports bra and bike shorts were pretty revealing, but in defense it was hot and he was the one that knocked. “Where’d you move from?”“Uh,” the guy started, stuttering, before he cleared his throat again. “Yeah, a band. We just moved from LA, actually. We felt we had, uh, exhausted the music scene there.”“No cap?” Julie asked. “I’m from LA too! I moved away when I was like, sixteen, after my mom died.”“I’m sorry to hear that,” the guy said. “Our friend, that happened to her too. Literally, same situation. She moved to Boston after her mom died about ten years ago.”
Relationships: Alex/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms), Flynn/Reggie (Julie and The Phantoms), Julie Molina/Luke Patterson, Nick/Carrie Wilson
Comments: 83
Kudos: 410





	1. we got all we need today

**Author's Note:**

> oop here's a new thing that I should definitely not be writing instead of my Power Rangers fic but YOLO this idea crawled into my brain and hasn't left.
> 
> title is from Thunder by Boys Like Girls

_The first thing that Julie noticed about the dream, was that it was, in fact, a dream._

_It had to be a dream. One, the familiar street that she standing on was one that she hadn’t been on or even seen in over ten years. The familiar little Spring flag that the Mason family next door always kept on their mailbox even when it was decidedly not Spring was tattered and occasionally flying from a small breeze or a car driving past._

_Two, and this was the weirdest part for her to deal with, was that she was definitely sixteen again and at least thirty pounds lighter. She was also smaller, or at least, made herself seem smaller._

_It had been a rough few months._

_And finally, three, the other people featured in the dream were of her neighbors that she had once considered something like family. The band of boys that rented out their garage studio to play music in that, for some reason, loved to hang out with her even though they were a whole year older than she was and literally the coolest kids in their extremely selective, performing arts school._

_Julie remembered that day, faintly, as if one remembered a moment when your world started to crash and you pushed it to the back of your mind to forget it. But at that point, she had been used to her world crashing and burning around her, as it had for the entire year before that when they first found out about her mother’s cancer diagnosis._

_And it continued to, for at least three more years._

_She could see that the boys, her boys, were saying words and she could feel herself replying even as she wrapped herself tighter and tighter into her oversized cardigan. She knew that she was a second away from bursting into tears, even though the sixteen-year-old Julie should have been all cried out since she hadn’t stopped crying for the past three months._

_The boys were crying too, or at least seemed like they were crying. She remembered them being right there by her side, through her mom’s sickness, through her death, through her funeral – literally up until her dad came, said goodbye to the boys, and ushered her into the extended cab U-Haul that would take them from their quaint street with her only friends in the entire world and all of the memories of her mother across the country to Boston for a fresh start._

_One of the boys, her favorite – though she never told anyone but her Tia would always say that she knew – stopped her, one last time, wrapping her up into a hug. His bare arms wrapped around her shoulders and it wasn’t long before the comforting presence of the other three boys wrapped around her as well and she remembered trying so, so, so hard not to start bawling right there in the middle of the street-_

The first thing Julie realized when she woke up was that her backup alarm was blaring loudly, meaning that she had slept through the first four. With a groan, she pushed back the sweat-soaked sheet that she had wrapped herself in in her sleep and slammed on her phone once, twice, three times until she finally managed to hit the off button.

The second thing that Julie noticed was that she was _drenched_ in sweat. Normally, this wasn’t an issue, not even in the summer time of Tennessee which was known for being miserable and sticky and gross, but Carrie had mentioned something last night about their air conditioner making weird noises, but it was Flynn’s turn to call their landlord for maintenance and the girl had been out on a date so the two girls mutually decided to leave it for today.

Which was, apparently, a mistake as it felt like Julie was _drowning_ in the puddle of sweat that she had made during the night.

The third thing that Julie noticed was that she had already forgotten her dream, she just remembered that it was something sad but, with one deceased parent and one halfway across the country because, even though you loved each other dearly, it was hard to live with him, a lot of things were.

She blindly reached over and picked up her glasses before shoving them on her face. It was, thankfully, her day off, but she still had things she needed to do so she grabbed her phone with one hand and used the other to practically peel herself out of her sheets.

Julie quickly ran through their entire three bedroom, two story house that the three girls only barely managed to afford (even with the help from Carrie’s very generous, very giving father) and turned on every fan, be it ceiling or oscillating, that they had.

Which, with this being the fourth time the air conditioning had gone out since April when it started to get hot-hot, was a lot.

Once somewhat cool air was circulating through the house, Julie quickly bunched up her sheets and threw them in the laundry. If she was going to get absolutely any sleep that night, which was _such_ a depressive moment episode for her, to immediately think about sleep as soon as she woke up, and Dr. Turner would have her actual _ass_ for, she knew that if she didn’t wash them, then they wouldn’t be washed and she’d be relegated to sleeping on their overstuffed sofa that ate almost anything that came into contact with it.

(Yes, Flynn was still upset about her expensive sunglasses that, no matter what they did with the couch, they still hadn’t found.)

With the laundry started and the apartment finally getting a decent temperature to live in that wasn’t the third circle of hell, the twenty-six year old finally felt okay enough to make something to eat. Or, well, after she looked at the time, a late lunch.

Maybe she _should_ send an email Dr. Turner’s way, after all.

Her phone started ringing as she pulled out the ingredients to make a sandwich, simple and easy and literally the only things she had in the house (she really needed to go shopping,) the familiar, rock tones of Bikini Kill ringing through the kitchen.

_Rebel girl, rebel girl  
Rebel girl you are the queen of my world  
Rebel girl, rebel girl  
I think I wanna take you home_

“Hey disappointment,” Julie said, a grin growing on her face as she shoved the phone between her shoulder and ear, holding it in place as she screwed the lid back on the almost empty tub of peanut butter.

 _“Hey underachiever,”_ Flynn said, her voice sounding bright and chipper which meant she _definitely_ got laid last night. _“Did you just wake up?”_

“Unfortunately,” Julie replied. “How was last night?”

The girl on the other end groaned and Julie grimaced.

Okay, maybe she didn’t get laid.

 _“I decidedly do not want to talk about it,”_ Flynn replied. _“Remind me to never sleep with one of Bumpkin Frat again, okay?”_

“Ugh that was your first mistake,” she said, with a laugh. “You _know_ the only two decent ones are-“

 _“Gay and taken, yeah yeah – believe me, I’m aware.”_ She heard a car door slam from the other end of the phone and Doja Cat’s _Bitch I’m a Cow_ started playing faintly in the background. _“Oh hey, I’ll be back soon. Can you believe this guy had the audacity to live in the ‘Boro?”_

Julie audibly winced as she took a bite, her mouth full of bread as she replied, “Oh yeah, that’s rough. Hey, can you call Harrison? The AC is out again.”

Flynn groaned again. _“Ugh, fine. Can do. Why can’t Mr. Wilson just have someone come out and fix it himself?”_

“Something something independence, something something doing things for yourself,” she replied. “Carrie explained it once, but I tuned her out.”

 _“Of course you did,”_ Flynn replied. _“But hey, if you want something fun to do while you rhinestone shit – and seriously, Jules, don’t forget that that’s what you need to do today – keep an eye out for our new neighbors. You got in too late last night but those boys? They are FOINE.”_

Julie dropped her phone _and_ her sandwich at the yell, her phone falling on the floor while her sandwich fell in the sink that had just enough dishes to make her uncomfortable to continue eating it. She could hear Flynn continuing on as she bent down, praying to every god in the pantheon that her screen protector had held up because she did _not_ have the funds to get a new one.

 _“-but I should be home in like an hour and a half,”_ Flynn continued, as if Julie had overheard everything she said. _“I think I see a cop, lemme know what you think about tomorrow! Love you!”_

“Be safe!” Julie yelled, getting it in right in time before the call ended.

Hopefully, what she said wasn’t important enough that it couldn’t wait until later.

She looked at the remnants of her sandwich and carefully scooped it out of the pot that Carrie had used to make curry for her and her boyfriend a couple of nights ago (and also the last time she had seen her oldest roommate) and dumped it in the trash before she started loading the dishwasher.

Her and Flynn had met at Freshman Orientation at college. It was the first time that Julie had been more than a couple of hours away from her remaining family members, and she had been terrified, but Flynn, as she usually did, barged her way into her life and immediately declared them as best friends. They had managed to con their way into being roommates in the all-female dorm on campus and even conned themselves into the same sorority.

Which is where they met Carrie.

While the two of them had been making themselves known as ‘Double Trouble,’ and totally living up to that name despite the Standards chair's best intentions, Carrie had been the most frighteningly competent person that either of them had met. Only a sophomore but already president of their nationally-ranked sorority, she had taken the two of them as Littles to try and reign them in. They 100% passed college because of Carrie, but Julie liked to think they helped her pull the gigantic stick from her ass that had almost made them drop day one.

And they had been an almost unholy trio ever since.

Julie stuck her head in the fridge to see if there was anything worth eating that either didn’t have mold on it or didn’t take more than a few minutes in the microwave. Finding nothing super appealing, she grabbed one of Carrie’s string cheese sticks before moving to the living room.

The girls’ living room was very well lived in – when the three of them weren’t out, they were usually all piled onto the overstuffed couch with some kind of takeout and some show queued up on Netflix. But recently Julie’s newest project was taking over the entire room, her sewing machine set up on a shaky tv tray that they had found at a yard sale and a floor length, purple gown strewn across the coffee table that was already half rhinestones at that point.

And, after today, it would be fully rhinestoned.

After a quick stretch, Julie sat herself down on the couch, pulling the coffee table closer to her as she started playing one of the many competition shows that Netflix offered (this one was about _flower arranging_ and she had no idea how they did it, but she was already two seasons deep and _invested_ , okay?) and getting to work.

There had always been something incredibly mindless but also immensely rewarding as stoning something. The smell of E6000 permeating the air and the little sounds of the gems as they dropped into the right places. The look that Flynn had come up with for her was going to be _gorgeous_ and would definitely be a showstopper. She could literally already imagine the stage lights reflecting off her dress like a purple disco ball she was going to be.

She just wished she hadn’t waited until almost the last minute to do it. ( _“You’ve had the fabric for a month, Jules!”_ )

Time passed slowly and quickly all at once while she was working, occasionally a funny comment from the show would catch her attention and she’d snort a laugh, but for the most part she was completely in the zone. Nothing would stand between her and finishing this dress today-

Except the doorbell ringing. Which is what it was currently doing. Repeatedly.

“Hold on!” she yelled over the sound. Whoever was ringing it apparently couldn’t hear her, so she untangled her crossed legs and pushed the table back. She stood up, her feet filled with pins and needles from sitting still for so long, and ran over to the door. It was probably Mrs. Harrison maintenance man and he had _never_ been this annoying before.

“Hey Mr. James-“

Her sentence trailed off as her jaw dropped because, whoever was standing at her door definitely _wasn’t_ their elderly maintenance guy.

No, this guy? A total rock god. He was taller than her (like that was hard) and his pompadour hair style looked equally fluffy and stuck in place from the amount of product he was probably using. He was wearing a thick leather jacket, despite the heat, and Julie could see the sweat soaking his white undershirt. He had lines of ink rising out of his shirt collar up his neck, indicating a neck tattoo.

In other words? Totally her type.

The guy coughed, clearing his throat, and started to speak – not even making eye contact with her as he shuffled a couple of pieces of paper in his (also tattooed, _holy shit_ ) hands.

“Hey, I’m one of your new neighbors,” he started. Julie watched his eyes go back and forth, reading over a notecard that he had in his hand. “The four of us are going around and introducing ourselves. We’re in a band and, before we get the cops called on us, we just wanted to let you know that we go strictly acoustic after 10pm so there is absolutely no need to worry about disrupted sleep schedules and-“

“Oh, you’re in a band?” Julie asked. The guy’s vision snapped up from the card he was reading off of and she saw his eyes widen as he looked her up and down and she bit back on the pleased smile that she knew wanted to come up. Her sports bra and bike shorts were pretty revealing, but in defense it was hot and _he_ was the one that knocked. “Where’d you move from?”

“Uh,” the guy started, stuttering, before he cleared his throat again. “Yeah, a band. We just moved from LA, actually. We felt we had, uh, exhausted the music scene there.”

“No cap?” Julie asked. “I’m from LA too! I moved away when I was like, sixteen, after my mom died.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” the guy said. “Our friend, that happened to her too. Literally, same situation. She moved to Boston after her mom died about ten years ago.”

Julie felt her throat seize at the guy’s words and _really_ looked him over, not just focusing on his tattoos and instead on his facial features.

It had been ten years, but her seventeen-year-old friend could definitely have aged into, well, _this_.

“What’s your band’s name?” she asked, cautiously, keeping the hope that was rising in her chest pushed down _just in case_ she was wrong.

There was a chance that the boys had changed it, after all, they had just settled on a good one right before she left. She had spent two sleepless nights one of the last weeks that her mom was in the hospital painting them a giant banner of their new logo.

“Sunset Curve,” the guy said, smirking. “Tell your friends.”

Julie gasped, her hand slipping off the door frame. The guy looked at her, worriedly, before she stepped closer – her toes hanging over the edge of the step that led inside.

“Reggie?” she asked, softly, hesitantly. Afraid that she was wrong because this was _too good to be true_.

The guy opened his pretty mouth, confused, as if to say something, before his _own_ jaw dropped as the realization hit him like a freight train.

“J-Julie?”

She had never seen anyone smile as bright as Reggie, now twenty-seven and incredibly _foine_ , as Flynn had said earlier, did. He instantly adopted the demeanor of a golden retriever and the two jumped for each other. Julie’s arms slid around his neck, in a tight hug, as she buried herself into his shoulder. His arms wrapped around her in return, picking her up and spinning her around.

He smelled a lot like sweat and leather and a little bit like weed and sandalwood and it was the best thing she had ever smelled.

“Molina! Holy shit!” Reggie yelled out, laughing. “It’s been _ages_!”

“Reggie!” she yelled back in return. She couldn’t stop giggling. “Oh gosh, you’re _here_! In _Nashville_!”

“ _You’re_ here, in Nashville!” the man said. He loosened his grip a little, still holding her a couple of inches off the ground and she did the same, pulling back to look in his eyes. “Wait, why are you here in Nashville? I thought you moved to Massachusetts?”

She laughed again, running a hand through his hair and watched as his happy smile reached his eyes as he relaxed into the touch. He had always liked having his hair played with and she absolutely loved that he hadn’t grown out of it.

“I did,” she replied. “But I came to Tennessee for college and, well, just stayed here. I never thought-“

“Yeah,” Reggie said. “I never thought either.” The two of them were silent for a moment and Julie felt her throat constrict again as the thought of tears made the back of her eyes prickle.

“Here!” Julie said. She wiggled her way mostly out of Reggie’s arms but still kept a tight grip on both of his hands. “Come in! We can catch up! Sorry it’s such a mess, my roommates and I have all been pretty busy lately and-“

Whatever happened next, she had no clue, since she was walking inside but was currently on a downward trajectory to the floor with Reggie yelping behind her.

Julie groaned as she laid on their carpeted floor that was more like concrete with how worn down it was with the entire weight of a full-grown man laying on top of her who was also groaning. She felt his warm breath on the small of her back and tried to flip over-

Which was exactly when Flynn walked up the steps on the porch.

“You know, when I said the new neighbors were hot I didn’t necessarily mean for you to immediately fuck one in the foyer,” the girl said, her sunglasses resting on the very tip of her nose.


	2. know the rest by heart

“You know, when I said the new neighbors were hot I didn’t necessarily mean for you to immediately fuck one in the foyer,” the girl said, her sunglasses resting on the very tip of her nose.

She let her head drop and hit the ground as she stared up at her best friend.

“Come on, this is _hardly_ a foyer,” she replied back, weakly. She looked down at Reggie who was staring at her stomach, still stunned from the fall.

“I pay rent here and if I want to call it a foyer, I’m going to call it a foyer,” the younger girl said, flipping her box braids over her shoulder. With all the grace that she could muster, Flynn Reynolds stepped over the still prone bodies of both Julie and Reggie and dropped her bag on the floor by the door. Julie could see the heel of her favorite pairs of shoes sticking out of it and saw that her friend was wearing the set of fluffy, cheetah print slippers that she kept in her car for post one-night stands. “Now, _are_ you going to explain why you’re mostly naked with a hot guy? Also, how did the hot guy get here?”

“The hot guy has a name,” Reggie finally mumbled, looking up for the first time. His jaw dropped once more as he caught sight of Flynn, looking as gorgeous as she ever did – always managing to pull off looking like a model even when she slept on some frat boys shitty twin size bed with no headboard.

Flynn just rose a single, perfectly plucked eyebrow at him in response. “Well, hot guy who apparently has a name, what’s your name?”

“His name is Reggie,” Julie said, pushing the older man off of her so she could sit up. “Reggie Weisz.”

She watched as Reggie’s expression went from stunned to suave and she firmly remembered his reputation as a lady’s man even when he was just seventeen that was apparently still going strong.

“But you can call me hot again, I don’t mind,” he said, holding out his hand to shake.

Flynn snorted and sat down on the ottoman, crossing her legs in the process. “Seriously? You were literally on top of my girl two seconds ago and now-“

“I’m trying to get under you? Yeah, sounds about right,” he finished. Julie reached out and slapped him on the shoulder. He let out a gasp, clutching it as if it actually hurt. “What? I’m just saying. My face makes a very nice seat, I’m just trying to give her options.”

“Jesus Christ, Reg,” Julie mumbled.

Flynn snorted out a laugh and it wasn’t long before Julie and Reggie followed. The two on the ground managed to push themselves back to their feet, continuing their trek inside with Julie still not letting go of his hands.

“So, when you say ‘Reggie,’” Flynn said, once the two managed to sit on the couch (Reggie sinking into it and yelping in the process because Julie _never_ lies about the coach that could kill,), but Julie only wrapped her arms around his. “Do you mean-?”

“My childhood friend Reggie?” she asked. “Yeah. Yeah, that’s exactly what I mean.”

The other girl started squealing and jumped from her spot on the ottoman to Julie’s lap, wrapping her arms around her tightly.

“Oh Jules!” Flynn yelled, still squealing. Julie let out as much of a laugh as she could at the girl’s enthusiasm even though she was being thoroughly crushed between her best friend on top of her and Reggie who had somehow been pulled into the pile. “I’m so happy for you!”

They hadn’t been friends until Julie moved to Tennessee, but Flynn had seen the one picture that she had of her and the boys that she had carried with her everywhere – through every dorm and shitty apartment and phone upgrade and the three broken laptops, so she _knew_ how important it was to Julie. She never even said anything about Julie’s attachment to the boys even though they had fallen out of contact, most of them years before the two of them had even met.

“I am too,” she replied, spitting one of Flynn’s many braids out of her mouth. “But I can’t breathe!”

Flynn scoffed. “You don’t need to breathe you’re fine.”

“No, but I kind of do,” Reggie mumbled, his face smashed into the space between the back of the couch and Julie’s shoulder.

Reluctantly, Flynn managed to pull herself away, carefully pushing the dress that had officially been forgotten off one of the corners of the coffee table and sitting herself on it. She hadn’t let go of Julie’s hand, squeezing it occasionally to show how genuinely _excited_ she was for the other girl.

Yeah, she loved Flynn.

“No, but seriously though,” the woman started, turning to Reggie. “How? And why _here_ , of all places?”

Reggie, who had successfully managed to free himself from the couch, shrugged. “Pure chance, and a little bit of luck,” he said. “We got tired of LA and thought Nashville would be a better start-“

“Wait, _we_?” Flynn asked, jerking her head back and forth between the two on the couch. “Does that mean the others are here too?”

Julie felt her mouth go dry, stunned at the thought. She had been so enraptured by Reggie’s presence, one of her oldest and dearest friends even if they hadn’t spoken in any way, shape or form since she was in high school, that she didn’t even stop to think about the _other_ members of Sunset Curve that she had left behind as well.

Bobby, who had taught her how to play guitar and let her paint his nails (despite it being a _girly_ thing) when she was trying not to have a panic attack about her mom. Alex, who acted like an older brother – braiding her hair and talking about boys with her and holding her while they both cried over the cheesy romcoms that they rented from RedBox. And Luke, who, well – who was her favorite. Luke who had introduced her to rock music and Luke who had taught her how to compose a song and Luke who snuck in fast food for her at the hospital and Luke who held her hand during the funeral and-

Julie turned to Reggie, tears springing to her eyes. Reggie, for his part, was looking at her kindly.

“They should be back by now,” the older man started, his voice soft. “Do you want to go see them?”

She couldn’t work her mouth, too busy thinking about the fact that they were _right there_ , literally just next door. All of them! She could _see_ them again.

“You bet your cute ass, she does,” Flynn said, answering for her. Julie gripped her hand, squeezing it tightly in thanks.

Thirty minutes later, Julie and Reggie were walking down the path that led to the boys’ house from the sidewalk and Julie was currently sweating bullets that had absolutely nothing to do with the heat of the afternoon sun.

Flynn had somehow managed to wrangle her into something cute and relaxed, despite her ongoing panic, while Reggie had calmly sat on the couch and watched the two girls running around the house like chickens with their heads cut off. Her hair was now somewhat tamed, pulled back into a ponytail and was wearing an actual shirt instead of a sports bra that probably belonged Carrie? But it was the first thing the tornado that was Flynn managed to find that was clean.

“Are you ready for this?” Reggie asked as he squeezed her hand, a hopeful and happy smile on his face.

Julie took a deep breath and looked up at the man, who looked so different but so similar to her childhood friend, and nodded.

“Let’s fucking do this.”

The two of them avoided the front of the house entirely, and Julie could see why. Their porch was still piled high with boxes and pieces of furniture – she even caught sight of someone’s actual bed frame and wondered what they had done to sleep last night. Instead, Reggie pulled her through the side gate that connected divided her yard from that of the boy’s and pulled her inside, the gate shutting and automatically slamming itself locked in the process.

Her contact with the band of boys that she had left in LA had fallen apart in pieces. It was… hard keeping up a friendship when you were across the country from one another. Time zones were a terrible, awful thing so when the boys were usually out and about, wanting to share things with her, she was usually asleep. Texting fell off, pretty quickly. Calls faded out even faster than that. By the time she graduated high school, she only occasionally traded snapchats with Alex and Reggie.

And then once college started everything stopped. She still saw what they posted on Instagram, liking it and sometimes even commenting, and they did the same, but that was as far as they went. The four boys who were once her closest friends and the only things that kept her tethered to the ground when her entire world was being rocked by her mother’s sickness and doctor’s appointments, had become strangers.

They grew up and grew apart, and it _happens_ and it sucks and it sucked the first time she thought of something cool and couldn’t tell one of them because it had been years at that point since they had talked and she didn’t have their numbers anymore because she was _trying_ to move on, but for the first time in ten years they were the same zip code and Julie couldn’t lie and say she wasn’t freaking out.

Reggie turned to her and held a finger up to his mouth, motioning her to keep quiet, as they walked closer and closer to the oversized shed that stood in the backyard. She could see empty boxes piled out in front of it, so if one thing was unpacked it was at least all of their music stuff.

The door was already open, and voices were filtering out and Julie bit back the tears that were threatening to come out, so overwhelmed at the mere thought of what was about to happen. Reggie squeezed her hand, once, twice, three times, before walking through the open door.

The shed was cramped, but that was only probably because of all of the boxes that still rested inside. Some guitars had already been hung up on the wall and a drum kit had been set up in the corner on a rug that had definitely seen better days. Even a keyboard was set up in the corner, facing the wall. Two guys were inside, the source of the voices, and were apparently trying to move an extremely heavy amp.

“If you’d just _lift_ it, Robert, we wouldn’t be having this issue,” the first one said, his voice straining as he tried to heft the amp.

“I am lifting _Alexander_ ,” the other one replied. “Maybe if _you’d_ stop being such a _pussy_ and lift it higher, I wouldn’t have to do all the work.”

“I’ll show _you_ ‘all the work,’” the first one retorted, dropping the side of the amp that he was holding and lunging for the second guy.

“Seriously, guys?” Reggie said, interrupting them right as the first guy licked his finger and went to put it into the other guy’s ear. “We have a guest.”

Julie resisted the urge to hide behind Reggie, who was still holding tightly to her hand as if she was going to make a break for it at the first opportunity (which she had been thinking about but there was no way he could have possibly known) as the two guys stopped what they were doing and slowly turned towards them.

“Dude, it’s been literally less than twenty-four hours,” the second one said as he brushed his strawberry blonde hair out of his eyes (which was weird, she knew that he had dyed his hair when they were younger because she had helped a couple of times, but to see him with light hair instead of black was a _trip_.) “We know you haven’t gotten any in like a week, but _how_ did you manage to find a girl this soon?”

Reggie yelped, letting go of Julie’s hand, and started to defend himself. “Excuse you,” he replied. “One, yes, it has been awhile but that has no impact on this current situation. Two, you’re an ass for even implying it. I’m hurt, Bobby. Three-“

Alex gasped.

“There’s no fucking way.”

The first guy spoke, interrupting Reggie’s diatribe. His jaw was dropped, and Julie couldn’t help but stare him directly in the eyes, a shy smile rising on her face.

The only difference between the past Alex that she remembered and the current Alex standing in front of her was that he was older. He was still taller than all of the others with his effortlessly styled blonde hair and fanny pack strapped across his chest. He was a little more worn down and he had some stubble, but he had actual smile lines now that he would've freaked out over when they were younger. He took a hesitant step forward and Julie resisted the urge to do the same.

“Julie?” he asked, his voice cracking on the last syllable.

Julie watched as Bobby’s eyes widened, the implications of what the blonde said hitting him all at once while Reggie stood off to the side, his arms crossed and a smug smirk across his face.

“H-Hey Alex,” Julie replied, her voice small as she struggled to get out the words. “It’s… been awhile.”

Before she could even blink, the taller man was _throwing_ himself across the room and she was lifted into the air as his arms locked around her waist. She wasted _absolutely_ no time in wrapping her arms around his neck and burying her face in his shoulder, just like she had done with Reggie almost an hour earlier. Alex had always been the best hugger of the group and it was nice to know that, ten years on, that was still the same. He smelled like dust and sweat and the lavender lotion that he used to use in high school once he came out and it was just so _comforting_ that Julie couldn’t help but start to cry.

And it was weird to think that her life had taken such a turn in just _an hour_.

“How in the _hell_ are you here?” Alex asked, his voice thick with his own tears and barely audible because he had buried his own face in her neck.

“I moved here for college,” she replied back, just as thickly, the tears starting to run down her face. “And then I just… stayed.”

“Holy shit,” Alex replied, muffled by laughter. “Holy _shit_ , Jules!”

Julie pulled back as she started to laugh as well, wiping the tears from under her eyes. “Yeah, holy shit.”

“Stop fucking hogging her, man,” Bobby said, his voice quiet as he approached the two of them.

Alex, regretfully, pulled away and Julie resisted the urge to grip his shirt tightly in her hands as he was quickly replaced in her arms by Bobby, who didn’t pick her up off the floor like the others had, but instead curled in around her - barricading her like a shield against the world, his scent of sweat and cigarettes and mint overloading her senses as if they were the only things in the room

Her relationship with Bobby had always been… difficult. He was the oldest of the boys and didn’t really like the idea of the year younger girl hanging out with them, but eventually she had worn him down with the shitty sci-fi movies he had liked so much and her mom’s enchiladas that he would always say he would kill someone for. He would always come and talk to her for advice about girls and she'd get him to help her with her math homework because Bobby had always been a whiz with numbers.

She started to cry even harder as he held her, squeezing tighter and tighter until it was almost impossible to breathe.

Eventually, the older man was able to control his emotions enough to let go and Julie smiled up at him, still gripping tightly to the front of his shirt.

“So, welcome to Nashville,” she said, her voice still thick with tears. Bobby started to laugh and then, before she knew it, Alex and Reggie were surrounding her on two other sides of her and joined in on the hug.

“It’s good to be here,” Alex replied, pressing a kiss to her hair.

The four of them untangled themselves from each other, the joy of the reunion quickly turning awkward as they tried to think of something to say that wasn’t more disbelief at the fact that Julie was _there_ in their studio and they were _here_ in Nashville.

This was exactly what Julie was afraid of, the awkwardness. They were all different people, they had all grown up and experienced life and Julie didn’t know whether she should start talking about her time college or asking if Alex ever asked out the lacrosse player in his grade that he had had a crush on.

It was weird and different and she felt herself start to fold in on herself, her arms crossed over her chest as she stared at the three guys who just stared back at her, just as confused.

Bobby’s phone started to buzz, shaking the four of them out of their stupor. He smiled at her, before clicking accept and walking out of the shed, giving directions to someone.

“We ordered pizza,” Alex said, softly. “We haven’t had the chance to go grocery shopping yet.”

“Wanna stay for a slice?” Reggie asked. “We can catch up.”

Julie smiled, taking the offer for what it was. “Yeah, guys, that sounds great.”

Both of the boys (men now, they were definitely _men_ , which was another thing that she would have to get used too) grinned brightly at her. Alex grabbed her in another hug and she clung tightly to the back of his t-shirt in reply.

“Oh, wait!” Reggie yelled, the loudest sound that had been made since he and Julie had stepped foot in the backyard. “Hey ‘Lex, where’s the song?”

“The… song?” the blonde asked, looking at his friend confused.

“Yeah!” Reggie replied. “You know, the one that we found cleaning out the studio.”

Alex gasped. “Oh fuck, yeah,” he said. He untangled himself from Julie’s hold and she resisted the urge to rope him back in, already missing the contact, as he strode across the shed and started digging through a box.

A few seconds of rustling later, he pulled out four pages held together with a lime green binder clip that Julie _knew_ had to have been stolen out of her old bedroom at one point.

With a soft smile, Alex walked back over to her, holding the papers out.

“We found… well, _Luke_ , found this in the studio right after you guys moved,” he explained. “We were clearing all of our stuff out of the garage before the new people could move into the house and it was under the sheet over the piano. It’s… well, it’s your’s.”

Both of the men were looking at her so _earnestly_ , that Julie couldn’t help but start to tear up even though she had no idea what was going on. Taking the papers in her hands, a sob immediately left her throat.

There, on the paper, was a song written in her mom’s handwriting.

While Julie loved her dad and her little brother, her mom had been her _everything_. Always there to hold her hand and tell her a story, she taught her how to read music and play piano. The two of them used to stay up for hours out in their garage whenever the boys weren’t occupying it, writing songs and talking about life.

As her mother got sicker and sicker, Julie stopped hanging out in the garage as much. The space, while it held so many memories of her mom, was tainted. She didn’t step foot in it after the funeral – her dad handled all of the stuff inside that belonged to her with the help of the guys.

“You still play, right?” Reggie asked. “Because if not, it’s an actual crime. You have a-“

“’Voice like a wrecking ball,’” Julie finished, not looking up from the pages. She could already hear the melody in her mind, the one that her mother had transposed for her before the end.

“I was going to say angel, but wrecking ball works too,” he replied. “Here – the keyboard is plugged in, you should play it! That thing doesn’t get much use, but we have it just in case.”

“We’ll leave you alone, yeah?” Alex said. “Bobby should have the pizza soon, and Luke should be back from his trip around the block too. We’ll hang out in the house and eat and talk.”

Julie stumbled over a thanks as the two boys left the shed, Reggie pulling her tightly into another hug and laughing as they had to pull her sweaty bare skin off the leather of his jacket, while Alex held tightly to her hand and kissed her temple, pulling one of her curls as they walked out.

It had been… hard to experience music in a positive way after her mother died. Her dad fostered it in her, of course, and music was the source of their only fights. He thought she needed to play to get better but he never understood that she _wouldn’t_ get better, nothing could make the pain of losing her mother any better.

Carrie had, actually, been the one to get her started back into music. They had been Big and Little for only a month, but she had invited her to a dance rehearsal that she had had with her dance group in college and, while Flynn had begged off to go to a party, Julie had gone. It was the first time that the two had actually bonded, talking about their parents and their connection to music through their parents. The older girl had broken into the music building and set her down in front of a piano. They had sat there for two hours before Julie could even play a note, but once she did she couldn’t _stop_.

With the boys gone, Julie carefully made her way over to the keyboard. She pressed the on button and placed the four sheets in the sheet music holder. Her hands hovered over the keys for a long moment, her eyes catching sight of the “You can do it, Julie! Love, Mom” that was scribbled on the end.

Then, she began to play.

_Here’s the one thing, I want you to know  
You got someplace to go  
Life’s a test, yes  
But you go toe to toe  
You don’t give up, no, you grow_

_And you use your pain  
Cause it makes you you  
Though I wish I could hold you through it  
I know it’s not the same  
You got living to do  
And I just want you to do it_

_So get up, get out, relight that spark  
You know the rest by heart_

Her fingers _glided_ over the keys of the clunky keyboard effortlessly, the music flowing through her. Her mother’s lyrics were _powerful_ , and if she would have had this song when she was sixteen she would have been an unstoppable force of music.

But she was twenty-six and playing in an old shed, but it still felt _magical_.

Her voice rose and fell with the music, the lyrics soaring higher and higher. She could feel herself start to cry as she got to the last page, not wanting to stop. Not wanting this last and unexpected connection to her mom to come to an end, knowing that she would never get to experience it for the first time again.

_Wake up, wake up, if it’s all you do  
Look out, look inside of you  
It’s not what you lost, it’s what you’ll gain  
Raising your voice to the rain  
Wake up your dream and make it true  
Look out, look inside of you  
When you’re feeling lost  
Relight that spark  
Time to come out of the dark  
Wake up, wake up_

The music ended with the last word, her eyes zeroing in on the note her mother left her. Julie picked up the sheet music, piece by piece, and held it tightly to her chest, relishing in the sheer joy that she felt at finding a connection to her mom ten years after her death.

“Who the fuck are you and what are you doing in our studio?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi!!! thank you so so much for all of the outpouring of love on this fic! i'm so glad people actually like the adult!au that i thought up in my head while i was in the shower.
> 
> keep an eye out for the next chapter! i love this monster of a fic so much and i'm glad you guys like it too!!


	3. cause its been years

“Who the fuck are you and what are you doing in our studio?”

The serene calm that she had felt while she cried and played the last song her mother had written evaporated immediately as if all of the air was sucked out of the room and centered on the single comment. Julie clenched tightly to the sheet music in her hands and slowly turned around and almost started crying all over again.

There, in the doorway of the shitty shed, stood a man that had once been her very best friend.

Luke Patterson was definitely older, but he still had the same shaggy hair he was known for as a kid, except it looked more intentional instead of him just having rolled out of bed. He was wearing a stiff, orange beanie like it wasn’t almost 90 degrees outside and he apparently hadn’t gotten any shirts with actual sleeves in the ten years since she had seen him, his muscled arms covered in inky black tattoos that stood stark against his pale skin were completely exposed.

He was, also, staring at her with an angry look that sent shivers down her spine.

“Well?” he asked, his voice raising. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

Julie could barely open her mouth to form words, just staring in shock at the man who was looking at her as if she were an actual demon.

“I know you can fucking speak,” he said, his lip curling in a snarl. “Unless that wasn’t you, just now, singing a song in _my garage_!”

“Actually, it’s a shed,” she replied, and instantly grimaced, knowing that that was _not_ the correct thing to say.

Luke started to sputter, “A shed- _Who are you_? Seriously, how did you even get _in_ here?” He stared at her, shocked and angry, and she could only stare back. Her heartbeat a rapid staccato in her chest as her hands started to shake. He zeroed in on her hands like a hawk, quickly realizing what was in her hands. “Where did you get that?”

His voice was controlled, but Julie could hear the edge to it. She watched as he clenched his hands, tightly, into fists and his body looked like it was ready to _lunge_.

“Alex gave it-“

“ _Alex_?” he interrupted, snarling once more. He strode forward and Julie tried to back up, intimidated and more than a little bit _scared_ , but only bumped into the keyboard which made a loud, discordant noise as multiple keys were pushed. She flailed for a second, trying to keep her balance.

“Y-Yes!” Julie said, her voice shaking now. “He said, well, _Reggie_ , said-“

“Oh, now _Reggie_ is involved too?” Luke retorted, interrupting her again. He was almost on top of her now he was so close, staring down at her and she was only somewhat shocked to find out that she still stood almost a full head shorter than him even though he was and had always been the shortest of the boys of Sunset Curve.

“Why wouldn’t he-“

But, Julie couldn’t finish as one of Luke’s hands shot out and gripped tightly to the sheet music. She thought about holding it tighter, pulling it closer to her because it was _her’s_ , it was from her _mom_ , but she knew if she did that and Luke wouldn’t fucking _let her speak_ it was going to _rip_ so she let him have it, her fingers itching at the loss of the papers.

“So not only did you _break in_ to private property,” Luke started, holding onto the music tightly and waving it above her head angrily. “You _went through_ our shit, and pulled this out and started to _play it_? Who do you think you are?”

“If you’d let me _fucking_ speak-“

“Yo, is everything okay? We heard yelling.”

Julie let out a shriek, surprised, at the new voice as all of the air that had rushed out of the room as soon as Luke started to dig into her immediately rushed back in. Her hands continued to shake as she grabbed tightly onto her shirt, twisting the fabric around her fingers, as Luke continued to glare daggers at her but she couldn’t look away from him – his eyes staring into her very soul.

“Who the fuck is this?” Luke asked, turning to whoever stood in the door, breaking their intense eye contact.

She let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding as she turned as well to see Bobby standing at the door, three large pizza boxes in his arms from the local place a couple of blocks away. He was watching them, a look of confusion on his face.

“Seriously, bro?” Bobby asked, snorting. “Stop playing and come inside. We got pizza to eat. Reg _finally_ found a place that could do deep dish and-“

“Stop _playing_?” Luke replied, his voice raising. “What do you _mean_?”

That was it, she was _done_.

“Lucas Shannon Patterson! If you would just _shut the fuck up_ for once in your life and _listen_!”

The air in the small shed stilled once again as both men turned to her and it was then that Julie realized that she was the one who had spoken, yelling the man’s full name to pull his attention.

And pull his attention it did.

Luke turned back to her, his jaw dropped. It was like his entire facial structure changed. Gone was the anger, the snarl, the _absolute and utter_ contempt at her mere presence, and, in its place, was a look of disbelief.

“Ooooh,” Bobby said, from the doorway as he started to laugh. “She pulled out the _government_ name.”

Instead of replying to his bandmate, Luke stood still as he stared at her and Julie couldn’t help but look back. No longer cowed, she pulled herself to her full height and stared him down, her hands still shaking, but _tired_ of not being listened to.

“How the _fuck_ does anyone get a word in with you?” she asked, sternly. Julie unclenched her shoulders and relaxed her arms, the anger bubbling up within her caused her to be loose and ready. It had been awhile since she had been in a fight, but she was totally prepared to. “How do you fucking _think_ I got in? _Reggie_ brought me. And _Alex_ gave me the damn song that’s not _yours_ to have – it has my fucking _name_ on it, you insufferable asshat.”

She took a breath and opened her mouth once more, ready to continue to dig into him and just _yell_ , but his grip slacked as he just gaped at her and the four pieces of paper fell to the floor at their feet and he looked like his dog just got run over and he won the lottery all at once.

“Julie?” he asked, softly, as if he dared to hope.

“Who do you think?” she asked, still staring him down. The effect of his puppy dog eyes had faded, either he had grown out of them or the time and distance had caused her to be desensitized to them when they would have once shook her to her core and would make her agree to anything he said. “Of course it’s _me_ , but you had to keep _barging_ on and not let me _explain_ , but _noooo_ the Great and Mighty Luke couldn’t possibly-“

“How are you here?” he asked, cautious and soft as if saying the wrong thing would cause her to disappear into thin air.

He started to reach out to her, his tattooed hands coming close and she almost gave in, almost _jumped_ into his arms, but she swatted his hands away. Luke pulled them back and held them to his chest as if the little swat actually hurt him.

Good.

“If you wouldn’t have acted like a dick, I would have told you,” she replied harshly.

Suddenly, the pit that Julie had slowly felt rising in her stomach started to grow deeper and deeper and she could feel the itch behind her eyes and _knew_ she had to get out of there. She quickly dodged around Luke, trying not to step on the music that was splayed out all over the floor, and made her way towards the door of the shed where Bobby was still standing with the pizzas.

She stood up on her tip toes and kissed the man’s cheek, his stubble scratching at her lips. Bobby turned to her with a raised eyebrow and she shook her head, just the once, but it was enough.

“Come find me when you pull the stick out of your ass,” Julie said to Luke, not even looking back at the man who, she assumed, was still staring at the spot she had moved from. “Bobby, tell the others I said bye, okay? We’ll catch up later.”

“Can do, Juliebird,” Bobby replied, a smirk on his face as he used the old nickname.

She thought about turning around, just for a second, to see Luke’s expression but she knew she’d break if she did. The _thought_ that he couldn’t even recognize her, even after all the time after _everything_ they went through, and thinking that she was breaking into their space and going through their things was something she couldn’t even fathom.

So, Julie left. She marched through the yard that she had once been so nervous to walk through – nervous because her long lost friends that she had missed _dearly_ were and she would get to _see_ them again – and out through the gate, hearing it lock shut behind her.

As soon as the gate blocked whatever view the guys had, she took off at a run. Over the small ledge, up their sidewalk and stairs, and threw herself through the door that, the only reason it didn’t slam into the wall was because of a door stop that Carrie had put in once Flynn had knocked a hole in the wall while drunk. Julie quickly shut the door behind her, falling against it as her heartbeat caught up to her as she buried her head in her hands. She didn’t know if it was racing from the fight, from the words she said, or the run home.

“Jules?”

The twenty-six-year-old peaked through her fingers to see Flynn, still in her fuzzy slippers, and, now Carrie too, home from work and holding a glass of wine.

Instead of replying, Julie could only start sobbing.

Fucking Luke Patterson.

* * *

Two hours later, it had taken an act of God to stop Carrie from going over and giving the boy, no the _man_ , a piece of her mind. She would have done it too, looking as elegant and as proper and _terrifying_ as always, in her sky high heels and one of her many pantsuits she wore to work. Her words could cut like a knife when she tried, having made grown men cry numerous times, and Julie could only be thankful that she had never been on the receiving end of a Carrie tirade.

Instead, she and Flynn – the absolute best roommates and family in the entire word – plied her with ice cream and wine from the older girl’s expensive stash. Julie had never really _liked_ wine, per say, but everything was better with ice cream.

She just… couldn’t fathom what had happened. The other guys had caught on, quickly, and had been more than welcoming and even _excited_ to see her. If she closed her eyes, she could still feel Alex’s arms around her (he has always given the best hugs, _always._ ) But Luke hadn’t even let her get a word in edgewise, yelling at her and not believing her even as she tried to explain.

The only other time that the two had fought had been about six months before her mom’s diagnosis. They had only been friends for a short while at that point and didn’t yet know the buttons to avoid pushing. They had fought, ferociously, about something that Julie couldn’t even remember now, and she had ran the entire way home while sobbing and thinking that their friendship was over, that she would lose, not only Luke, but Bobby and Reggie and Alex as well because the four of them were a _unit_ and she was just the hanger-on.

He had climbed up the wiry tree outside her window that night, balancing precariously on the branches as he knocked on her window and she ignored him, still upset, until she eventually got tired of the noise. Luke apologized for everything he said, she apologized for everything that she had _thought_ but couldn’t get out because, like today, he completely railroaded over her and didn’t give her a chance – then he fell from the tree and broke his arm in three different places.

Luke shared his jello cup with her while he waited in the hospital to see if he needed surgery and she knew, then, that no matter what the two of them would always be friends.

Then, she was proven wrong when she moved across the country and they almost immediately stopped talking.

“Fuck white boys,” Flynn said, for probably the eighth time as she scooped a spoonful of ice cream into her mouth. “No offense, Carrie.”

“Nick will get over it,” the older girl said, waving it off. “Besides, he knows he has faults.”

“Yeah, but at least he’s _nice_ ,” Flynn replied. “I mean, what he lacks in looks he makes up for in attitude and-“ she didn’t get to finish as Carrie lunged over Julie, who was sitting in between her two best friends in the entire world, and started smacking the other girl with their decorative throw pillows.

“Hey, no!” Julie yelled, holding her glass filled with an absolute bastardization of wine and ice cream above her head and trying not to spill it all over herself _and_ the couch.

But the others didn’t listen – Carrie still attacking Flynn and the other girl getting in on it, grabbing her own throw pillow and smacking the other girl in response. Until one of her strikes went wide-

And smacked into Julie.

Her glass slipped from her hand and she could feel the sticky mixture in her hair, slowly dripping down her face. Julie closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths as the other two stopped, staring at her in both apology and not a slight amount of fear.

“I am _so_ sorry,” Flynn said, her jaw dropped.

Julie sighed. “It’s fine,” she replied. She opened her eyes to see that the two had dropped their pillows and were now staring at her in regret. “I’m just gonna… go clean up, okay?”

Her two roommates nodded as she slowly unraveled herself from the nest of blankets and the couch that she had worked herself in to and slowly trudged through the house, climbing up the stairs to the single bathroom that all of them shared.

As soon as she shut the door, Julie could hear the other two start to argue – the sound muffled by the door enough that she couldn’t exactly _tell_ what they were saying to each other, but the tone was enough for her to realize they were fighting and she _hoped_ that it wouldn’t lead to her having to bail the two of them out of jail because they did something possibly illegal.

Shaking it off, Julie quickly stripped out of her clothes and jumped in the shower as the sticky mess of wine and ice cream started to get unbearable. She, briefly, thought about trying to drown herself in the half inch of standing water at the bottom of the shower that never drained immediately because of all of their hair clogging the drains, but ultimately decided that she didn’t want the EMTs to lug her naked body out of the shower and embarrassing her in death.

A few minutes later, once all remnants of the mess were off of her skin and out of her hair, Julie wrapped herself in a towel and waddled over to her room. The sounds of her roommates arguing had dissipated, the only sounds now were what sounded like a wrestling match on the tv.

The fact that, her two roommates who some of the girliest, most feminine people that she had ever met, had bonded over WWE always tripped her up, but she loved them dearly.

She shut her bedroom door behind her and sat on her (still unmade) bed, wondering if she would have the ability to make it tonight once she pulled everything out of the dryer (did she even _put_ her sheets in the dryer earlier?) or if she would just sleep in the remnants of the nest on the couch when something started tapping on her window.

Julie turned, thinking it was probably just a tree branch, but fully _screamed_ at seeing the adult male that had, a few hours ago, yelled at her, balancing precariously on the skinny tree branches and holding onto her window for what looked like dear life.

“Jules!” she heard him shout, the sound muffled by the thick glass of the window that Carrie’s dad had _insisted_ on when they said they were renting a house in Nashville. “Please, I-“

Before she could answer or walk over to even open the window, her bedroom door slammed open. Julie screamed, again, and turned around, still clutching tightly to her towel as both Flynn and Carrie were standing in her doorway. Carrie was holding one of their empty wine bottles like a club and Flynn holding one of her slippers, ready to hit someone.

“ _Who_ the fuck-“ Carrie started, as she started to walk to the window. Luke, on the other side, visibly panicked and tried to scoot backwards, but he started to wobble, and Julie _lunged_ for the window – beating Carrie there. She quickly pushed it up and reached out, dropping her towel in the process, but grabbing onto Luke’s arm with both hands as he lost his balance and almost tumbled to the ground.

“We’re too old to share a jello cup, Patterson,” Julie said through gritted teeth as she used every ounce of strength in her body. “ _Please_ grab onto the fucking window.”

It took a few seconds, Julie feeling like her grip was slipping the entire time, before Luke managed to swing his free arm up through the window and grabbing hold of the window sill to try and pull himself up. Julie heard the tree branch that he had been sitting on snap and fall to the ground as she pulled him through.

“Julie!” Luke said, his voice panicked and his eyes wide as he realized _what_ exactly had just happened. “I’m so _so_ sorry, and I-“

And then he realized she was naked. Of course he did.

The man quickly slammed his hands over his eyes and turned around, starting to walk away but bumped into the window. He stayed facing away though which gave Julie enough time to throw on a pair of sweatpants and a tank top and shoo the girls out of her room, even though Carrie looked like she would rather die than leave her alone.

(She loved her friends, so much.)

“You can turn around now,” she said, her voice flat, once she was fully covered.

Luke turned then, peeking through his fingers _just in case_ , with his face a bright red color. When he saw that she actually had clothes on, he knelt down on the ground – a full three feet away from her.

“Julie, I-“ he started, but he stopped to clear his throat as she just stared at him – at his dopey look and his stupid, messy hair and his _even stupider_ shirt that was barely even a shirt at this point. “Julie, I am _so_ , so sorry.”

“Why?” she asked, crossing her arms as she sat down on her sheet less bed. She crossed her legs and tried to sit as straight as she could, trying to appear intimidating. “Why are you sorry?”

He looked at her, in wonder, before shaking his head. “Because I overreacted and didn’t let you speak. If I had just _listened_ , instead of just assuming that you were like, I don’t know, a fan trying to break in or a thief or something, I wouldn’t have yelled at you, or been yelled at by the guys, or almost fallen from a tree outside your window _again_ and-“

“Luke?” she interrupted. His mouth shut _so_ quick as he closed his eyes, as if waiting to be yelled at. “How _did_ you know that that tree was outside _my_ window?”

“Honestly, I just guessed,” he replied, sheepishly. “It’s also the only tree that had sturdy enough branches to climb. I tried the other one a few feet away and _definitely_ almost died.”

The other tree a few feet away was outside of Flynn’s window and, while Julie would have _loved_ to see her best friend rip into the guy, she was ultimately glad that he had chosen the right tree.

Both of them sat in silence, for a few long minutes, just staring at each other. Luke was looking at her so earnestly that she almost started to cry, _again_ , even though she definitely should be all cried out by this point with just how much she had cried today.

“Oh,” he said, snapping himself out of it as he reached behind him and pulled something out of the waistband of his pants. It was a few pieces of rolled up piece of paper, slightly creased with a couple of marks like they had been stepped on. “This… this is yours. I’m sorry I tried to take it. You’re right, it is yours. I- _we_ found it on top of the piano after you moved.”

“Alex explained,” she said, a soft smile on her face. Julie tentatively reached out and grabbed the rolled up papers and clutched them tightly to her chest. “Thank you, for, I don’t know – keeping it safe all these years. It means a lot.”

Luke let out a low laugh, running a hand through his hair as he looked up at her cautiously. “Anytime,” he said. “Again, Julie, I am so sorry. You’re right, I’m a, what did you call me, an insufferable asshat and-“

Before he could finish, Julie dropped the sheet music on her bed and _lunged_ at him. Thankfully, he was kneeling on the ground so he didn’t have far to fall as she wrapped her arms around him and took him down. He let out a breath as he hit the ground, but his arms wrapped around her quickly as he held her tightly to his chest.

“God fucking dammit, I _missed_ you,” he muttered into her hair as he squeezed her even tighter.

Julie breathed in the scent of sweat and Axe and tree sap and buried her face in his neck. “I missed you too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hiii!! again, thank you all so so much for all of the support for this au!!! it seriously means a lot and i cry at almost every review that i get and the kudos email that ao3 sends out is literally the best thing i've ever seen every morning. thank you thank you thank you and i really hope you liked this chapter! and it's not a cliffhanger!! be proud!!
> 
> yes, luke's middle name is shannon. carrie and flynn bonding over wwe wasn't planned, but i literally can't think of anything being as perfect as the two of them loving redneck anime and fully bonding over it. also, if anyone wants the cast for the aged up jatp cast for this fic lemme know bc my best friend and i spent like a solid hour figuring it out lol next chapter coming soon!! i love you guys!!


	4. i found the ground

Julie had always liked hugs.

Growing up, the Molina family had always been very partial to showing affection with each other. Her mom would kiss her cheek when she played and mastered a hard melody on the piano, her father would pick her up and swing her around when she got a good grade on her report card. Even her little brother showed his affection, hugging her whenever she gave him advice about one of the many girls he liked in school.

So, suffice to say, Julie wasn’t afraid to spread around the love. Once she met the boys, she was never afraid to hold Alex’s hand as they walked down the pier and tried to keep the other boys from diving in or doing anything else stupid. She’d ruffle Reggie’s hair when he was being annoying while she was trying to do her homework and kiss Bobby’s cheek whenever he did something sweet to make up for picking a stupid fight with her. But Luke? Well, Luke got hugs.

Alex had always been the best at giving hugs, hands down. Most people would literally _pay_ to be hugged by Alex. He was always so much taller and broader and warmer it was like coming home, but Luke was just so _passionate_ about it that he always ended up getting more than all of the other boys, combined.

She remembered hugging him after Sunset Curve played their first gig (it was Mrs. Sanderson’s neighborhood book club, no, no one was really sure why, but the old ladies had loved them and plied them with _many_ snacks.) She remembered hugging him the first, second, third, _and_ fourth time he ran away from home after a fight with his mom and came to her first. She remembered hugging him in the basement of the funeral home where the lighting was dim and the smell of flowers was _overpowering_ and there were platters of food spread around while she cried at the fact that her mom was _right there_ but also _not._

Julie also remembered that, the very last time she saw him, he had wrapped her in the biggest hug before she climbed into the U-Haul that took her away.

The two grown adults laid together on the floor for an indeterminate amount of time. Julie only knew that time had passed because the sun had started to set, casting her room in shadows. Still, throughout it all, Luke held her tightly to his chest, mumbling nonsensical words into her hair that she couldn’t really hear, she just felt the rumble in his chest.

Eventually, she climbed off of him, but didn’t go far, falling to the ground beside him and grabbing tightly onto one of his hands and the two lay side by side on the rough carpet. Luke kept a hand wrapped in her hair, carefully picking her strands out of his many rings whenever one would get caught. Julie, on the other hand, couldn’t tear her gaze away from him no matter how many times his hand got stuck.

It was sappy and gross, and both of her roommates would give her shit over it, but when she first saw Reggie standing in her doorway earlier that morning this was what she _craved_.

Soon though, the sun had fully set, and it bathed the entire room in darkness. Julie didn’t know how long the two of them had been there, but she did know that they needed to move.

Thankfully, Luke’s stomach started to growl, breaking the silence that had fallen over the two of them. He smiled at her, sheepishly, and she could only smile back. He sat up and she followed, feeling dizzy from the prolonged time of laying on the floor.

“The guys wouldn’t let me have any of the pizza until I came over and apologized,” he said, softly.

Julie grimaced. “If it was deep dish, that means it was Ralphio’s and you weren’t missing much. Except maybe salmonella.”

“Reggie’s gonna be upset.”

The two of them looked at each other, grinning, before Luke snorted out a laugh and Julie started to giggle. She reached out and held onto him as the laughter took over her body and she felt his hand grab onto her knee as he did the same.

They were still laughing when her door opened, hesitantly, and both Flynn and Carrie stuck their heads in.

“Having fun?” the older of the girls asked, her perfectly sculpted eyebrow raised. Julie could see that she was holding a nearly full glass of wine.

Neither of them could answer, unable to stop their laughter.

Flynn fully pushed the door open and stood with her arms crossed. She tried to put off an intimidating aura, but her butter yellow shorts and fluffy cheetah slippers made her come across more as an angry kitten instead of the ferocious tiger she was aspiring to be.

“Well?” the girl said, flipping her long braids over her shoulder.

“Flynn, Carrie,” Julie said through her laughter, even as it started to calm down. She still had a tight grip on Luke’s arm. “This… well, this is Luke. Luke, these are my roommates Flynn and Carrie.”

Immediately, the man swallowed his laughter. Once he got himself under control, he gripped onto her knee tighter, as if afraid.

“Hey,” he said, nervously. “I’m uh… sorry about the window thing? It’s just-”

“It’s something that he did the first time we fought, like ever,” Julie jumped in, explaining.

“Uh-huh,” Flynn replied, not even paying attention as she looked at her nails. Julie didn’t even want to think about how the two of them looked, they had just been laying on top of each other on the floor for what seemed like _hours_. “Jules, we ordered Chinese. It should be here soon.” She stared reproachfully at Luke and Julie held in her wince. “Not enough for your friend, sadly.”

Luke let out an anxious laugh, using his free hand to rub the back of his head. “No worries! It’s cool. I should be getting back anyway. There’s still a lot to unpack.”

“You guys had the studio up though,” Julie said, bumping their shoulders together. He turned to her and grinned, bumping her back. “At least that’s something.”

“Still,” he said sheepishly. “I know you saw all the boxes. Everywhere.”

“It _is_ an eyesore,” Carrie said, her voice filled with snark. If Julie didn’t know her, she would say that the older girl was being a bitch, but Carrie was definitely just putting on her ‘Rich Sorority Girl’ persona to get the man to leave.

Julie sighed and stood up, trying to shake the stiffness out of her knees as Luke did the same beside her. She looked up at him and grinned and he smiled down at her softly. She grabbed his hand and started to pull him with her, through the door and down the hall and down the stairs. Her roommates followed behind, watching to make sure he left.

“So, I imagine we’ll be unpacking most of tomorrow,” he said once he stepped onto the porch. “But, I don’t know, do you maybe wanna grab dinner or something? I’m sure the guys would-“

“Bumpkin Frat’s party is tomorrow, remember?” Carrie said, cutting into the conversation. “Willie’s been looking forward to seeing you, Jules. He just got back.”

“Oh yeah,” Julie said, smiling at her roommate in thanks. She turned back to Luke who looked like a kicked puppy and she grinned. “I’m working all day, and then we have the party, but you guys should come! Bumpkin Frat’s parties are always killer, and you’ll get to know the neighbors.”

“Bumpkin Frat?” he asked, confused.

Julie nodded. “Bumpkin Frat. They actually live in the big house at the end of the street. It’s like six guys who we went to college with who are super chill. Carrie has been dating one of the brothers, Nick, for like eight years now.”

“And still no ring,” the older girl said with a sigh. “But, at least that means I can keep the two of you out of trouble.”

Flynn shoved the older girl who laughed as she stumbled, magically managing to hold her wine glass steady and not spilling a single drop. Julie turned back to Luke who was standing with his hands in his pockets, nervously.

“It’ll be fun,” she said, poking him in the shoulder. “Nick’s into music, and Willie is really cool. You’ll like them, I swear.”

“I- yeah, okay,” he said with a shrug. “I’ll ask the guys. Bobby will be down, for sure.”

Julie grinned at him brightly and he smiled back, the dim light of the porchlight casting his face in a soft glow.

“So, see you tomorrow?” she asked, hopeful.

“Tomorrow,” he replied.

Julie reached out and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, feeling his come around her waist as they hugged goodbye. With one last, quick, squeeze he let her go.

“It was nice meeting you guys,” he said to the girls over Julie’s shoulder.

“You too!” Carrie replied, her ‘RSG’ voice going strong.

Luke smiled, again, and turned around. Julie thought about watching him walk next door, but Flynn reached around her and slammed the door.

“You guys could’ve been nicer,” she finally said, turning around.

Flynn scoffed. “After what he did? Girl, you’re too forgiving.”

“He made up for it!” she argued “He even brought the song that my mom wrote over.”

She watched as the harsh look fell off of Flynn’s face, slowly replaced by a small smile. She looked over at Carrie who had dropped her vapid persona to see that she was, also, smiling.

“Well, we’ll see how he handles tomorrow,” the older girl replied, flipping her strawberry blonde hair over her shoulder. “If they can’t handle Bumpkin Frat-“

“-Then they can’t handle us,” Julie and Flynn replied, in unison. The three of them stared at each other for a moment before they started laughing, and continued to laugh for another five minutes until a knock on the door from their delivery driver interrupted them.

* * *

Julie had almost been late to work the next morning, the MSG from the Chinese food that was practically the only thing she had eaten all day other than half of a sandwich and the weird mixture of ice cream and wine, practically sending her into a coma. Still, she had hurried and made it to the diner right on time – even if the night shift server was pretty pissed about not getting to leave earlier.

“Tables two and four need top ups soon,” the crotchety old woman said as soon as Julie clocked in and tied her apron. “Next time, be on time.”

“I’m not late?” Julie asked, confused.

Instead of replying, the woman just rolled her eyes and left and Julie resisted the urge to stick her tongue out at her retreating back.

Her shift passed quickly. Her diner shifts _always_ did. There was always something going on, always someone needing something. The kitchen snuck her a couple pieces of bacon whenever they could because she was the only server on shift and didn’t get to take a full break, but she was used to it.

The diner was just that, a diner. A small, local place that was more of a hole in the wall than almost anything else in the county. The food was a little too greasy, the coffee a little too burnt, but the people who knew about it loved it and did everything they could to keep it out of the hands of the hipsters (which, in Nashville, was pretty difficult.)

She quickly said goodbye to her two tables full of regulars as soon as her replacement got in before speeding out, liberating a to-go box of cheese fries on the way with a kiss to the cheek of Al who was her _favorite_ member of the kitchen staff because he always snuck her food whenever he could. She had a lot to do before she could even start thinking about the party that she was on the fence of being super excited for and super dreading.

It would be the first time that both groups of her friends met. The boys she had known since she was a teenager and the adults that she had grown into herself with would be meshing for the first time. She was _terrified_ , what if they didn’t get along? She wouldn’t give up the guys for anything, not at this point after _finally_ getting them back, but her girls? The boys from the frat? _They_ had been the ones to make her feel like a person again after she moved and there was something about their bond that could _never_ be replicated.

So she crossed her fingers and prayed to whoever thought to listen that everything went smoothly.

After Luke had left the night before, she had sat up for hours with Carrie and Flynn and told them stories about growing up with the guys. She fully explained the first window climbing incident, sitting in on Sunset Curve’s rehearsals before they were even Sunset Curve, baking cookies with Alex and helping Reggie with his English homework and sneaking into the cheap movie theater with Bobby and writing music with Luke.

Well, okay, to be honest most of it was about Luke. What? He had been her _best friend_ and she had been devastated to leave him.

(And so what if both of her roommates had exchanged looks and asked her how long she had been in love with him? The answer was _no_ , they were just friends.)

(Mostly.)

Julie was the first of the three to get back home and she immediately sat down with her forgotten stoning from the day before to try and get as much finished as possible. Her gig was in a few days and, even if it _was_ rushed, it needed to at least _look_ intentional. She had gotten so in the zone that she didn’t notice Flynn had gotten home until she started coughing from the fumes of the E6000.

“Ugh, Jules,” she said as she tried not to hack up a lung. “Windows exist! Please open them!”

The other girl waved her off as she quickly placed the last three stones on the bottom hem of the dress. It wasn’t perfect, but it’d do.

“Carrie is already at the house,” Flynn explained as she, herself, walked through the house and opened up as many windows as she could. “I think she mentioned something about food and, well, you know how _that_ turns out.”

Julie winced as she remembered the first BF party that Carrie had ever taken them too. The older girl had been too busy with Chapter stuff to go and help so, for once, the guys had been on their own to figure out food for one of their house parties.

The ‘food’ had ended up being a single plate of cooked ground beef, a block of solid Velveeta cheese, and one bag of Tostitos.

Carrie Wilson had _never_ let them do food by themselves ever again.

“Doesn’t one of the new guys work at that new ribs place in the Gulch?” Julie asked as she stood up and stretched for the first time since she had gotten home. She felt her lower back crack with the effort and relished in it.

Flynn pointed finger guns at her from the stairwell as she climbed up and Julie watched her go with a grin.

Thankfully, the other girl had allowed her to dress herself for the night (she was easily the most inept at fashion out of the three of them and had been dressed in some form or fashion by Carrie and Flynn since she was 18 so, at this point, something had to have sunk in) so, two hours later when Flynn _finally_ came down the stairs to head down the street, she gave Julie an approving nod.

It wasn’t a lot – her overly curly hair was held out of her face with a headband. She was wearing a yellow crop top that Flynn had actually given her at one point and a pair of super short, high waisted shorts. Julie wore a simple pair of Vans and totally forewent heels, knowing that she was _probably_ going to get drunk and her plus heels plus alcohol equaled trips to the emergency room.

“Are you meeting the guys there or walking with them?” Flynn asked. She, on the other hand, was wearing an absolutely _tiny_ dress with her favorite pair of sky high heels. She had never gotten tired of dressing up and out for parties even as Julie (and Carrie, too, eventually) started showing up in sweats.

“I’m picking them up,” Julie said as she reapplied her lip gloss in the mirror hanging next to their door for this exact reason. “I think they’re nervous?”

Flynn snorted. “They should be.”

Julie just rolled her eyes in reply.

The two girls left their house, Flynn locking the door behind them and stuffing the key under one of their three fake rocks they left by the door so she wouldn’t have to deal with keeping track of something else. The smaller girl, now almost towering over Julie with her heels, leaned down and gave her a kiss on the cheek before striding down the sidewalk towards the giant house at the end of the street. Julie stood on the porch and watched her friend strut away.

Goals, honestly.

Shaking her head, she plastered a grin on her face before turning and going the opposite direction towards the house where the guys now lived.

The boxes on the front porch had been cleared off, giving her a direct route to the front door which didn’t exist yesterday. The wooden steps up to their porch shook as she stepped on them, but Julie just hopped her way up before ringing the doorbell.

Repetitively. Literally so much.

“Oh my _God_ can you please fucking stop,” Bobby yelled as he ripped open the main door. The force of it caused the screen door that rested in front of it to wobble.

Just to be spiteful, Julie pressed the doorbell three more times, in quick succession. Bobby merely growled and threw open the screen door, picking her up and throwing her over his shoulder while she screamed as he brought her into the house.

“Bobby!” Julie yelled. “Put me down!”

“Nope,” the older man replied. “You don’t deserve it. Spiteful bitch.”

The smaller girl started to beat on his back until he, eventually, set her down. Julie luckily landed on her feet as he let her roll off of his shoulder, so when she was finally able to straighten up to her full height she hip checked him.

Once Bobby was dealt with, Julie couldn’t help but look around. She had never been in the house while the previous tenants lived there, they had been an elderly couple and didn’t really have much to do with the younger generation that lived in their little neighborhood.

It was still pretty bare, all things considered, because they _had_ just started moving in yesterday. There were two couches set up in the living room along with a massive television hooked onto the wall. She could see a couple of frames leaning against a wall and wandered what kind of art the boys were going to hang.

“Welcome to Casa de Sunset Curve,” a voice said from the stairwell. Julie turned to see Reggie descending, his black leather jacket making his pale white skin almost shine in the dimness of the house. “Luke is out back in the shed and Alex is finishing primping.”

She saw a foot peak out from the stairwell and watched as it kicked Reggie, knocking him down a few steps.

“Primping my ass Mr. ‘Almost-One-Full-Can-Of-Hairspray-For-This-Stupid-Hairstyle’,” Alex said as he came into view.

He turned and smiled at Julie and she couldn’t help but grin back at him. The older guy quickly walked the rest of the way down the stairs and over to her, wrapping her up in another hug.

“I still can’t believe you’re here,” he muttered. Julie wrapped her arms around him and _squeezed_ tightly.

“You? _I_ can’t believe _you’re_ here,” she replied. “I thought… I thought I’d never see you guys again.”

At that, Alex just held her tighter.

Even though it felt like forever, the blonde eventually let her go and she pulled back and smiled brightly. Flynn had worked too hard on her makeup for tears to ruin it, so she bit them back.

“Let’s go get Luke and head out, yeah?” she suggested, her voice a little thick. “You’re gonna love the guys. And my roommates! Reggie only got to meet Flynn, but there’s Carrie too and she’s great!”

“Lead the way, Molina,” Bobby said, a smirk on his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the wait! the holidays and retail kicked my ass and i'm still not 100% happy with this chapter, but i needed to get something out.
> 
> yes, the food debacle of the one plate of ground beef, one bag of tostitos, and one unmelted block of cheese actually did happen at the first frat party i ever went to it was hilarious.
> 
> since one whole person asked for my cast of this fic, here ya go:  
> julie- herizen guardiola  
> flynn- keke palmer  
> carrie- zoey deutch  
> luke- ross lynch (with dark hair)  
> reggie - ryan mccartan  
> alex- austin butler (with blond hair)  
> bobby - chase stokes  
> willie- still booboo bc i've been in love with him since twilight  
> nick- dacre montgomery  
> kayla- sarah lahbati 
> 
> so yeah!! i'll try and get the next chapter out sooner! love you guys and thank you for all of the support!!


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